


Checked Pyjamas and Messy Hair

by undernightlight



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, X-Men: First Class (2011)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-05-02 08:45:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19195528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undernightlight/pseuds/undernightlight
Summary: Charles is wondering where everyone is, and while searching, he comes across a photo album he didn't know existed, containing photos of them all at the mansion. He finds one of him and Erik.[Set during First Class]





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wonderfully inspired again after seeing Dark Phoenix to revisit the X-Men franchise in a fic type setting. I've always loved them since I'd seen the original ones when I was young, but there is definitely something about the alternative timeline that is more inspiring for me in a fic sense. I like them all though.
> 
> Anyway, regardless of all that, enjoy!

“Hank?” Charles called out, as he walked around trying to find him, anyone really. “Raven? Erik?” But there was no response. Why couldn’t he find them? He was checking rooms as he passed them, popping his head in and finding them empty. As he was about to turn and leave one of the studies when he saw signs that life had once been there. There was a cup of coffee on the table by the couch, next to a large, thick, leather-bound book. It stuck out to Charles less because of its size, but more because he didn’t recognise it, and he knew it didn’t belong in this room. Curiosity got the better of him, and Charles flicked open the cover. The first page was blank, and he found himself frowning, so he turned the page and was finally met with something.

On the page, there was a taped in picture of most of the team, all but himself and Erik. Hank and Raven and Alex and Sean. The picture was a little shoddy, slightly blurry, but they were all smiling like kids, big and wide and their eyes happy and shining. Charles smiled back, some kind of fatherly instinct he thought, but he pushed that aside as he turned the page. Two pictures taped down. The first was of Raven paying no mind to the camera, but in the second she was smiling, lunging towards the camera and whoever it was behind it, almost is if to snatch it away before a picture could be taken. She clearly wasn’t successful.

Charles found himself sitting down and continuing to turn the pages, find new pictures on each one. Some were deliberate pictures with smiles or goofy faces, posing either cute and sweet or completely dramatic and stupid. Some were sneaky pictures taken hidden with leaves poking into frame but never compromising, just quietly capturing moments from a far. It was quite a while into the book until there were any pictures of him, still loose between the pages like the previous two.

It was taken from behind at some distance, and it was him and Erik stood outside. The lighting was soft and warm, the sun starting to dip below the horizon. Charles found himself chuckling at the state of himself, in a t-shirt that seemed to engulf his small frame and his hair messy. Erik wasn’t much better, in a turtleneck and checked pyjama bottoms. They looked to be smiling and laughing but it was to tell, but Charles remembered that moment well. He’d been walking to the kitchen to make some tea when he heard the closing of a back door. He was curious, few knew of it, so Charles wandered out to see who it was. It was Erik, and Charles wandered out to meet him.

“Erik,” he called out, to which the man in question turned, slightly surprised but not startled, “I haven’t seen you much today, is everything alright?”

“Fine,” he replied.

“Erik there are two reasons I know you’re lying to me. One, that at this point I know you well and I can hear it in your voice and see it in your face. Two, because I’ve never seen you wear those pants and I have to say they are quite hideous.”

The laugh that came from Erik, this laughter that came from his stomach and chest, caused a smile to spread across Charles’ face quicker than a smile ever had before and it made him feel quite warm inside. He finally met him against the stone wall looking out across the grass as Erik’s smile started to drop. Charles let his fall also.

“Tell me what’s wrong my friend.”

And Erik did. Charles could remember the conversation about how Erik was struggling to cope in an environment in which he wasn’t constantly in fear or scared and how he had times where revenge wasn’t even close to him or his heart. The words somewhat startled Charles but he could see Erik changing, being happier and smiling more often. It was the reveal about Erik often still felt scared that stuck with Charles the most.

“You have nothing to fear.”

Erik nodded, “but when you spend all your life hide from it, and then your realise you have nothing to hide from, it can be difficult to adjust.”

“I understand my friend. But I’m going to make it a point now to remind you every so often that you’re safe here. Well, safe being relative. I’m not exactly sure you’ll be free of ridicule if anyone sees you wearing those.”

And another full and warming laugh from Erik elicited another wide and genuine smile from Charles. Erik gripped Charles’ shoulder, bringing him round to look him in the eyes. Charles could see through his eyes how much his spoken words really meant, but he still struggled with his words. The reassuring squeeze on his shoulder and the way Erik’s eyes shone told Charles enough.

They continued talking for quite some time. Talking and laughing and smiling and just being separate from the rest of the world. They were doing good, helping each other and the other mutants and all future mutants, but sometimes it was nice to forget it all and pretend it was just them being friends with no expectations.

He picked up the photograph and held it in his hands, looking over it again, examining every detail. The door opened bring Charles round and it was Hank. He looked tired, out of breath, his chest heaving ever slightly and his hair beginning to stick to his forehead. “Oh, Charles, hi.” And then he saw the photo in Charles’ hand and the open book on the table. “I’m sorry, sorry, I’ll clean this up.”

“No, no, it’s alright, I was just looking for everyone and happened to come across this. Is it yours?”

“Urm, yeah. A hobby I suppose.”

“You’re good, keep it up.” He stood, not asking why Hank was so sweaty because he assumed he’d hear about it later and poor Hank was starting to blush the same colour as a chilli pepper. And he was about to drop the photo back on the page when he stopped. “Do you mind if I keep this?”

“N-not at all, have it.”

Charles smiled and nodded, before thanking Hank and leaving. He kept the photo securely between his fingers as he walked up to his room. As much as he tried to separate himself from his past and the feelings that connected him back there, he was extremely sentimental. All across one wall there photos in a collection of frames, not all the same but somehow still all matching, and Charles pulled down an old one of him and his parents. It surprised even him how easy it was to replace that picture with the one of their stolen moment. He folded up the one of his old family and put it in a draw, then hung up the frame again, now him and his new family.

Erik was family there was no doubt. The doubt came when Charles tried to think exactly what the label was that best fit Erik. There were ones that seemed to fit, like brother, but that wasn’t quite right and he knew it. When he thought about it too much, he found himself getting flustered and in need of a distraction, and it was usually then that he’d seek Erik out for impromptu chess or for a philosophical conversation, or Raven to tease and chat to like the big brother he was.

He looked at the picture one final time and smiled again before leaving, slightly flustered, with the intention of finding that magnetic friend of his for a game of chess and to remind him that he was safe.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote a follow up chapter. Honestly not sure why but I wanted to see how Erik would react to the photos. But either way, I hope you enjoy this.

Over the course of a month, Charles had slowly been accumulating more of Hank’s pictures for his own bedroom wall. He had to go out and buy more frames and nails. It was honestly starting to verge on insanity. Once a week, Charles would seek Hank out and ask to look through his photos and see if anything really caught his attention. It didn’t escape Charles that at first, there was maybe one or two of him and Erik, and they were old, taken a while back, but then slowly there started to be more and the pictures were recent. Charles tried to refrain from taking everything Hank had, but he always took at least one.

He’d frame them and hang them on his wall. On his nightstand, there were two pictures. One was of him and Raven, one that was deliberate and taken by Hank, stood with drinks in the garden out back. They were celebrating a birthday so everyone was around to one degree or another, and Hank had brought out his camera. He happily took pictures of everyone, all expect Erik really, who when saw the camera pointed in his vague direction, shuffled away. Charles couldn’t but want for Erik to be in a picture, to see him smiling and letting his happiness be captured. But instead Charles had to deal with the sneaky pictures Hank would take through a window or around a corner or looking down the stairs. The other photo was of him and Erik, somehow unsurprisingly. Honestly, Charles couldn’t remember exactly when it was taken, all his clothes looked the same, but it was taken though a door that wasn’t closed properly. They were sat together in his study playing chess. It amazed Charles how Erik hadn’t noticed that camera since he was looking in that general direction.

Charles saw that picture every night before he went to sleep and every morning when it woke up, and no matter how many times he saw it, it made him smile. In the photo, Erik was smiling at him, big and wide and the corners of his eyes crinkling up. Though he couldn’t remember the exact moment the photo was taken, he could perfectly hear Erik’s laugh in his head, and every time he though of it, he became flustered and lost concentration. Erik had made a comment one evening during chess that he was finding it far too easy to beat him, and it was then that Charles realised how distracted Erik could really make him, but a large part of him didn’t really mind.

It was comfortable outside in his cardigan. He was waiting for Erik to return with the chess set. It was his own idea for chess outside with tea and biscuits - very British - and to get some fresh air. He sent Erik for the chess while he took the tea outside on a tray, and he was still waiting. However, then he realised he sent Erik to the study, or that’s where Erik would most likely go to look, but the chess set was in his bedroom. Upon this realisation, Charles stood and went to find Erik. He first went to his study, expecting to find Erik there or on route back downstairs but the study was empty. With a frown, he then wandered his way up another floor to his bedroom, thinking that could be the only place Erik would be.

When he pushed the door open, indeed Erik was there. The chess set had been located and was on the bed, but Erik had his back to the door and something in his hand that Charles couldn’t see.

“Erik?” He called out. Erik turned and then Charles saw the framed photograph in his hands, held tightly and close to his body. His fingers drifted beyond the wooden frame and onto the glass that separated him from the photo. It was hard to see which, but a quick scan across his wall helped identify the one. It was the first picture he ever took from Hank, the one taken outside with messy hair and those god awful pyjama trousers that Erik wore.

“Charles what is this?” Erik asked, fully tuning himself around and holding out the picture.

“It’s a photograph.”

“Yes I know that, but why do you have this? Where was this taken from?”

“Out a window.”

Charles realised that maybe he should’ve mentioned this to Erik at some point. It wasn’t that it was a secret, that he had these pictures throughout his room, but he also hadn’t told anybody either. Hank knew, obviously, or at least to the extent that he had the picture, but other than that it was probably still a mystery. Telling Erik would’ve been a strange conversation, but maybe he should’ve. Charles couldn’t deny that this could look strange.

“Who?”

“I’d rather not disclose that.”

“Why?”

 

“For their own safety. I mean, they did witness those trousers.” Charles had hoped the joke would lighten up the atmosphere, and he let out a breath when Erik chuckled and nodded his head.

“You may be right.”

Charles expected that to be the end of things, for them to take the chess set outside to the tea that was probably less than lukewarm, but it wasn’t. Instead, Erik sat himself on the edge of Charles’ bed and returned his attention to the framed photo in his hands. And Charles just stood there for a moment watching. He watched Erik focus on them and that moment and probably that conversation just like he had when he first saw the picture. His fingers absentmindedly ran along the glass. In part, Charles didn’t know what to do. There was something written across Erik’s face that he couldn’t quite read and of course that made him nervous, but it was Erik, so it okay to be nervous. No ever quite put him at ease like Erik did.

His legs started moving and soon he was sat next to Erik on the bed, and yet still nothing was said for a moment. Charles, for the shortest fraction of a second, thought about dipping into Erik’s mind, but that thought quickly left him. He promised he would never do that to Erik and he intended to keep that promise, but there wasn’t much he could think to say.

It seemed Erik didn’t need words. He kept his eyes on the photo but suddenly Charles felt Erik’s hand wrap around his. His small hands were easily engulf and it sent warmth through his body. He stared at their hands as he twisted his and locked their fingers together, and then when he looked up to Erik he found himself looking straight into his eyes. He always did have striking eyes, the kind that would bore into your soul, but Charles knew that all Erik had to do would ask and he’d lay out his soul for him. A smiles quired at his lips and one was mirrored in Erik.

“Erik?”

“Yes?”

“You’re safe here. You never have to be scared.”

Erik took a deep breath, and Charles could tell he was trying to think of the words to say, that he was bracing himself to speak "There are times where…” Charles squeezed his hand for reassurance and it seemed to work, “Where I wake up and forget where I am and I want to scream. But when I’m with you, I’m never scared.”

“Then stay here tonight. With me. That way if you wake up I’ll be here, and if you need to scream then scream, I will be there for you. You don’t need to be scared Erik.”

The words flowing between them seemed heavy yet light, somehow saying more than the words themselves. They were so close and it wasn't hard for either of them to lean in a kiss. Charles didn't know if it was him or Erik, but he assumed it was probably both of them. It was far more delicate than he would first think, but he seemed to find that reflected Erik perfectly. This expected brashness and aggression only there to protect himself from any pain. Erik was the sort of individual that would rather close himself from everyone to prevent hurt, than to risk it all for warmth and love and acceptance. Yet that was all Erik wanted. Acceptance and love and being able to be truly himself with no fear. 

Their kiss was short lasted but that didn't mean that it was everything that it needed to be. Charles had a feeling, or at least he hoped, that it wouldn't be an anomaly and that it would be something else to incorporate into their routine. He wanted what was best for Erik though, that was his priority. Erik had a smile across his face, one corner curling up more than the other, before his eyes fell down to the picture still in his hand. 

"May I have this?" 

Charles actively scoffed. “No. I love this photo far too much to let it fall into your hands. I can’t risk you burning any evidence of those hideous trousers.”

“You’ll never let me forget those pants?” The happiness in Erik’s tone kept Charles warm and light.

“No, I most certainly will not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I finished this last night but then I wasn't happy with the ending so I added a bit more, the kiss basically, and I think that helped end it a bit better. Honestly I think the first chapter was better, but I still like this, and I hope you did too.


End file.
